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Let’s reach our full potential

Editor: There is an old saying, “If you are standing still today, you are already going backwards.” Fourteen years ago a couple from Vancouver bought the yacht club building wanting to turn it into a restaurant.

 

Editor:

There is an old saying, “If you are standing still today, you are already going backwards.”

Fourteen years ago a couple from Vancouver bought the yacht club building wanting to turn it into a restaurant. It didn’t have the parking, we couldn’t find parking, couldn’t find alternate parking, couldn’t change the parking regulations. They finally gave up and left and the building sat empty for 12 years.

The grocery store disappeared.

Shoal Bay was going to be home to nearly 200 taxpayers and purchasers of goods and services. It was too high, too low, too wide, wrong colour. Just over a year later we said no.

The drug store disappeared.

Gospel Rock was up next. We couldn’t reach a mutually beneficial agreement with the owners and they just sold at a huge loss. 

Why does any of this matter? We had a problem with our water this summer that cost $300,000 to fix — and we don’t have the money. We have to borrow or pay by special levy, which is a sexy way of saying it’s coming out of my back pocket. Fine, we can probably handle this one, but what happens when the next surprise is $2 million?

Now we have a local businessman wanting to gift our small town with a staggering 50-plus or minus million dollar hotel, convention centre and condo complex that will direct tax dollars to the town, create employment, bring new dollars into the economy via tourists and, most importantly, be the ignition point that sees the Landing reach its full year round potential.

Let’s elect a council that will be willing to at least look at all the facts before making a decision. And who knows? It might be more exciting than blackberry brambles and fuel storage tanks.

Morley Baker, Gibsons